Free workshop offers classes in healthy eating and exercise

Chef Robert Edwards is a co-founder of A Taste of Health. He teaches participants how to make healthier meals at home.

In a bare classroom at the Coronado YMCA in Richmond, a small group of women—and one man—dance around in a misshapen circle as they imitate activities from running to praying. The instructor, Sonjay Odds-Eggleton, sings out, “My name is Sonjay and I like to squat,” as she squats down and pops back up twice. The other people in the circle copy her movements and improvised lyrics. They move a bit slower, but after a couple times around they nearly have it down.

“Her name is Sonjay and she likes to squat. Her name is Vera and she likes to cook,” they sing in unison, making wide pot-stirring motions with their arms.

The participants range in age from their late 20s to early 70s, but they have one thing in common: They’re all giving up half of their Saturdays for the next eight weeks to participate in “A Taste of Health,” a free eight-week workshop run by the Richmond Faith Initiative designed to help them make major lifestyle changes.

On the first day of class students are weighed in, body measurements are taken and a volunteer nurse does a baseline health screening to check blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels. Mildred Crear, a retired nurse, volunteers with the Bay Area Black Nurses Association and has screened participants since the workshops started three years ago. She said the most concerning issue she sees time and time again is high cholesterol. But it can also be the most rewarding health metric, she said, because she often sees it drop when people stick with the program. “We’re able to get them to lower their cholesterol,” Crear said.